100 years ago: “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” hit #1

When You Were Sweet Sixteen George J. Gaskin

Writer(s): James Thornton (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 10, 1900 Peak: 18 US, 2 GA (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: James Thornton was a songwriter and vaudeville performer born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1861. He started out as a singing waiter before finding success doing comedy in music halls. However, he also composed songs, eventually becoming one of the greatest Tin Pan Alley songwriters. WT He was inspired by his wife, Bonnie, to write “When You Were Sweet Sixteen.” She tried to keep him from spending all his money on alcohol and when he came home drunk on Independence Day, WT she tearfully questioned if he still loved her. He replied that he loved her as much as he did when she was sixteen. She encouraged him to turn it into a song. TY2 He did, and she introduced the song in her act. The ballad became a hit vaudeville song and became a standard for barbershop quartets. WW George J. Gaskin, nicknamed the “silver-voiced Irish tenor,” WG had the most successful recording of the song. He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1863 but came to the United States as a teenager. He started recording with the Edison North American Phonograph Company in 1891, specializing in Tin Pan Alley songs and sentimental Irish ballads. WG He landed twenty #1 hits over the next decade. His final chart-topper was “When We Were Sweet Sixteen.” Gaskin wasn’t the first to chart with the song, or even the first to hit #1. In March 1900, Jere Mahoney charted with it, taking it to #1 for five weeks. The following year J.W. Myers and Harry MacDonough both reached #3 with their versions. The song saw a revival in 1947 after it appeared in The Jolson Story. Al Jolson took it to #1 in Australia. Perry Como’s million-selling version reached #2 in the United States, followed by top 20 versions by Dick Jurgens and the Mills Brothers. The song resurfaced again in 1981 when the Fureys went to #14 with it in the UK. The song was also featured in the Shirley Temple film Little Miss Broadway (1938), The Strawberry Blond (1941), and Bing Crosby sang it on the soundtrack for The Great John L. (1945). TY2 Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for George J. Gaskin TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 12-3. WG Wikipedia page for George J. Gaskin WT Wikipedia page for James Thornton WW Wikipedia page for “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” First posted 12/2/2022; last updated 12/14/2022.

100 years ago: “Bird in a Gilded Cage” hit #1

A Bird in a Gilded Cage Steve Porter

Writer(s): Arthur J. Lamb (words), Harry Von Tilzer (music) (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 26, 1900 Peak: 16 US, 12 GA, 15 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Harry Von Tilzer was a composer, songwriter, publisher and vaudeville performer born in 1872 in Detroit, Michigan. He got started playing piano and writing tunes for burlesque and vaudeville shows. His first major success was “My Old New Hampshire Home” in 1898. It sold more than two million copies of sheet music and prompted him to become a professional songwriter. WT Arthur J. Lamb was a lyricist born in 1870 in Somerset, England. He had his first major success with “Asleep in the Deep” in 1897. WL Two years later, Lamb approached Von Tilzer with lyrics for “A Bird in a Gilded Cage.” Von Tilzer liked it, but asked Lamb to change some words so it was clear the woman in the song was married and not a mistress. The song details the story of a trophy wife who is “surrounded by wealth yet impoverished socially and emotionally.” PS In the first verse, a couple talk about the woman, saying she only married for money, setting up the chorus which refers to her as “a bird in a gilded cage.” In the second verse, the woman dies and it is even speculated that she may be happier that way. Von Tilzer became “the most prolific composer of this decade.” DJ He said the song was “the key that opened the door of wealth and fame for him.” WB It also opened the doors for ballads to dominate popular music in America through 1914. WB The two went on to work together on more songs, including hits like “The Mansion of Aching Hearts.” W2 The sheet music billed “Cage” as “the most beautiful ballad ever written.” It certainly was “an enormously successful sentimental ballad” TY2 and one of the most successful songs of 1900, selling more than two million copies of sheet music. The first charted version was by Jere Mahoney in April 1990 and it reached #1 on Billboard. It spent five weeks on top, knocked out by Steve Porter’s version of the song. It bettered Mahoney’s, staying at the pinnacle for six weeks. Harry MacDonough also charted with the song that October, reaching #2. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Steve Porter DMDB encyclopedia entry for Jere Mahoney DMDB encyclopedia entry for Harry Von Tilzer DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 22. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) PS ParlorSongs.com (2001). “Tear Jerkers in American Song, Part 1” TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 9-10. WT Wikipedia page about Harry Von Tilzer WL Wikipedia page on Arthur J. Lamb WB Wikipedia page on “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” First posted 12/1/2022; last updated 12/15/2022.